Poker Night
by NNWest
Summary: Just a quiet night in the TARDIS and a friendly game of cards. Set around Boom Town. 9th Doctor, Jack, Rose.


_TITLE: Poker Night_

AUTHOR: NNWest

DISCLAIMER: Sadly, none of them are mine...but I like playing with them.

AN: Many thanks to the Ladies Sabrina and Laurel who cajoled the Ninth Doctor into speaking to me and for loaning me some of their words when mine had dried up. Thanks also to my beta-reader Kathy.

* * *

The Doctor had wandered into the kitchen fairly early in the game, ostensibly for a cup of tea, but in reality, Rose suspected, to check up on them. She and Jack had probably been quiet for too long.

They had started off the evening with a few drinks, but instead of embarking on their usual romp through the TARDIS, on a whim Rose had suggested a friendly game of cards. Jack quickly agreed, topped off Rose's glass, and stopped drinking the moment he set the stakes for the game; something Rose took notice of soon after and stopped as well. If he was going to play in earnest, she wasn't going to let him win without a fight.

By the time the Doctor entered, he found them playing cards at the kitchen table. Idly, he cast an eye over the general disarray of the room, the bottle they had been sharing earlier forgotten on the counter, glasses close by. Rose's customary hooded jacket lay discarded on the floor along with Jack's shoes.

He now watched this new ritual with a bemused, but interested, expression as he leaned against the counter waiting for the kettle to boil. They played a round, both studying their hand for a moment before playfully taunting each other. The Doctor had placed the game, but hadn't determined the stakes that would engross his companions so completely.

"Read 'em and weep," Jack stated, grinning from ear to ear. He fanned his cards dramatically on the table. "Two pair, jacks and sixes. My lucky hand, if I must say." He leered at Rose a moment. "If you need help with those buttons, just say the word."

"Well, I'll keep that in mind," Rose replied seriously, still looking at her hand. She let the serious look fade from her face. "But unless things have changed in 30 centuries, three of a kind still beats two pair." She slammed the cards down on the table, revealing three queens. "Right then, off with them."

Jack frowned slightly. "You're cheating."

"I'm not! Now off with 'em."

Jack grumbled, but took off his socks and threw them across the room.

Another hand was dealt and play, complete with banter, continued very similarly to the round the Doctor had just observed. Eventually, Jack called, revealing a full house to beat Rose's pair. "Hah, yes!" he exulted. "What are you losing?" He grinned lasciviously.

"Oh, I don't know. Since this is the last hand I'm planning to lose, I could make it interesting." She smiled prettily back at him.

Tea made, the Doctor dawdled, propping himself against the door frame, waiting for the conclusion of this particular conversation before leaving the kitchen. Catching him in his hesitancy, Rose wagged an admonishing finger at the Time Lord. "Oi, no cheap thrills. If you're gonna stay, you have to play," she said.

The Doctor pondered it for a moment, he shrugged and moved toward the table. "All right," he said simply, taking the empty chair at the table.

Rose was stunned. She'd really expected him to make some excuse and escape the area as swiftly as possible, the idea that he might take her up on her challenge had been too improbable for her to contemplate. Though, she thought to herself, it would certainly be interesting to finally see if her overactive imagination had filled in certain details correctly. Just getting him out of his beloved black leather jacket was an occasion to remember. She glanced to Jack who appeared to be thinking the same thing. They shared a predatory grin.

"Well, go on then," the Doctor urged, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. He was daring her, the same kind of dares he made to his adversaries when he thought they wouldn't go through with it. "Make it interesting."

Suddenly, Rose started to rethink her previously chosen course of action, feeling a bit self-conscious since the Doctor had deigned to join their frankly immature game. Jack she could handle. He had quickly become one of her best friends, her partner in crime, but the Doctor was a different story. She felt connected to him in a way she never felt with anyone before and often found herself really trying not to appear to be a silly little human in front of him.

What the hell, she mused, this isn't going to be one of those times; he took the chance by sitting down at the table, he'll just have to deal with it. With that thought she stood and grabbed the hem of her tank top yanking the shirt off over her head and dropping it on the floor on top of her hoodie.

Now she'd done it her doubt threatened to surface again. She was suddenly certain she would blush bright pink the moment she looked at the Doctor. Instead, she looked to Jack first, regaining her confidence when she saw his smile. Jack always made her feel beautiful and he seemed to know how she felt about the Doctor even though she had never said anything. He just read it from her like reading from a page in a book.

She steeled herself and shifted her gaze to the Doctor. When she saw his wide-eyed expression of disbelief, she nearly laughed out loud, a feeling of triumph soaring in her at the idea that she could surprise him. He obviously hadn't been expecting this from her. Shaking himself a bit when he recognized that she had caught him staring, the Doctor gave her a slightly sheepish smile.

Rose had always found that when playing with men, the sight of a lacy brassiere provided a distraction which she could usually use in her favor. She was delighted that it seemed to be working on the two men before her.

Retaking her seat, she instructed, "The game is five card draw. You know how to play?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," the Doctor replied, sounding both wolfish and vaguely affronted at the same time. "Deal me in."

"Okay then, but no help from the TARDIS. Telepathy is definitely cheating."

Cards were dealt once more and they played. The next several hands saw Jack lose his belt and t-shirt and their fresh prey, the Doctor, stripped down to his jumper and trousers. Staying true to her earlier vow, Rose did not lose another hand.

When she had suggested poker to Jack at the beginning of the evening, she had somehow neglected to mention that she happened to possess a remarkable talent for the game. So much so that Mickey had banned her from playing, only making an exception for those rare times when he got in over his head and needed her to win back what he'd lost. Even then, that had only been on very rare occasions. He'd had to use her talent sparingly; anytime this happened he would inevitably have to find new poker buddies. No one would let her play a second time.

"Call. You got nothing." She was almost right as he produced a pair of threes, but Jack's hand definitely didn't beat hers. She laid out her three sixes. The Doctor had wisely folded early.

Jack shook his head. "Should have guessed you were the devil. This just confirms it."

"I'm feeling generous. You can have a choice, the jeans or answer one question." She smiled mischievously, catching her bottom lip with her teeth.

"Okay, what's the question?" Jack asked, her smile producing more than a little apprehension.

"Which of us do you want more, me or him?"

He made a show of studying each of them in turn before responding, "I suppose I'm not allowed to answer both, am I?"

The Doctor snorted, inspecting the cards on the table. "As if. You know, for a supposed confidence trickster, you are a remarkably bad bluff."

"You're just playing hard to get," Jack teased.

"Is that an answer?" Rose gathered the discarded cards to shuffle again.

"No," Jack said succinctly, stripping off what Rose had correctly guessed was his last scrap of clothing. Didn't he know you should always wear underwear when challenged to a game of strip poker. Common sense really, she thought as she admired his toned form before her, but she wasn't going to complain. She also noticed the Doctor taking a nice long--appreciative?--look as well and she wondered once again just how "flexible" the Doctor was.

The Doctor had used that word when describing Jack's 51st century sexual attitudes and Jack certainly was the most flexible person she'd ever met. He was, what Rose had come to think of as, omni-sexual, flirting with almost anything that moved and some things that didn't; male, female, alien, didn't seem to make one bit of difference to the ex-Time Agent.

There were times when she was sure the Doctor fancied her, an idea that thrilled her more than even their varied adventures. There were also times when she wondered if his flirtation with Jack was more than playful banter. And though the Doctor looked human, she and Jack were alien to him, thus making him fairly omni-sexual as well.

"I'm out."

"I'll say you are," the Doctor smirked.

"Don't get too cocky over there, Doctor. This leaves just you for our little card shark to pick on."

It was Rose's turn to smirk at the Doctor as he evaluated his own position. His next loss would end up exposing quite a lot of skin and he didn't look happy about it.

"Are we going to play or talk? Who's idea was this anyway?"

Jack, retaking his seat with as much modesty as he could manage, pointed accusingly at Rose.

"Yes, but if you remember, the strip part was yours. Serves you right." She stuck out her tongue and dealt new hands for the Doctor and herself.

"I used to be better at this," Jack complained.

"Just you and me now, Doctor."

"Should have stuck to dancing, Jack." The Doctor turned back to Rose. "So, they never told you not to go up against a Time Lord when personal dignity is on the line."

"Nope." Rose cast an eye over her hand.

"Apparently, you've never been warned that you shouldn't go up against a 21st century shop girl when loss of apparel is at stake. That, and something about Sicilians and death," Jack pointed out.

"Tha's a great movie. Classic."

"Movie?" Jack looked confused.

"Have fun storming the castle," the Doctor added. He discarded two cards, Rose dealt him two replacements and replaced one of her own.

Just for a moment, Rose caught the hint of a smile tugging at the Doctor's features when he checked his new cards. And he had teased Jack about his poker face, she thought. From that little quirk, she knew he had something--something he was pretty sure of. She was very careful to keep her own expression neutral as she checked her final card--a heart--and added it to the other four hearts in her hand. Folding her fan of cards, she looked up again. "Ready when you are."

"Getting bored with this? What do you say we go all in?"

"You sure you want to do that? I'm only saying 'cause you haven't won a hand against me yet," Rose said mildly.

"Oh yeah." His smile held all the arrogance it had when he'd dared her earlier. She'd knocked him down a peg that time, she was pretty sure she had the cards to do it again.

"All right" she agreed. "You win this hand, I lose the rest of what I've got on." She smiled coyly as an interesting thought struck her. There was one other thing her overactive imagination had been busy pondering. "I win, I think I'll go easy on you."

"How so?" he inquired suspiciously. "Going to ask me the same question you put to Jack? Only, it doesn't seem a fair bet."

"No, Doctor. I'm not really interested in that answer from you."

"Um, I would be!" Jack pouted, but Rose ignored him and continued.

"No, I would like you to kiss me," she stated airily. "And before you go an' tell me you've kissed me before, I want a proper kiss. On the lips." As Rose presented the final wager, a certain amount of uncertainty was creeping over her. She was again afraid she might blush, but she continued to meet his gaze steadily.

Rose imagined she saw incredulity mixed with something else--fear perhaps?--pass very briefly over his features before his well-worn cheeky expression reappeared. "Forward, aren't we," he mocked.

"Unless you're scared, of course. You could always just take your kit off," she taunted with a grin.

"Which would be much more fun for me," Jack interjected quickly.

"Ask for anything you like. You're not going to win this one." He layed his cards down. "Four aces." His face was alight with triumph.

"You're right. Tha's a pretty impressive hand," Rose admitted, feigning defeat for a moment. "Not much could beat it..." Rose started to lay out her cards, one at a time, on the table in front of her--eight, nine, ten, jack, queen of hearts. "Except maybe this," she finished smugly.

When Rose placed the last card between them, the Doctor stopped smiling and stared in astonishment at Rose's cards. "I don't believe this!"

Jack's jaw dropped. "No way! She had to be che-" His accusation was cut off as the TARDIS took a unexpected lurch, nearly sending all three of them to the floor.

Game immediately forgotten, the Doctor grabbed his jacket before jumping up. "Might be trouble. Put your trousers on, Jack," he ordered, sprinting toward the door.

"I told ya help from the TARDIS was cheating," Rose called after the disappearing Time Lord. Attired as prescribed, Jack gave her an apologetic little shrug before disappearing as well.

Left alone in the kitchen, Rose sighed in annoyance. So close. She picked up her shirt and gave it a shake to straighten it before beginning to pull it on. Her arms and head were caught up in the shirt when a pair of hands settled on the still exposed skin at her waist causing her to gasp in surprise.

Freeing her head from the confines of the garment, she barely had time to register the Doctor giving her a mischievous, near-manic grin before he leaned in to press his lips to hers. The kiss only lasted a few brief moments before the time ship shuddered slightly. Or was that my knees, Rose wondered. He released her and rushed out once again. Rose finished tugging the tank into place before running to follow, her own wide grin settling joyously across her features. "Hey, wait for me!" 


End file.
